Mary of Scotland

4/27/2022

I'm not sure how much whisky the studio bosses must have had before alighting on the choice of Katherine Hepburn and Fredric March for this telling of the story of Mary, Queen of Scots - but it was either too much, or not enough! Beginning after her return to her kingdom following the death of her French husband, Francis II, it tells the tale of her battles with her nobles; her hapless drunken husband Darnley (Douglas Walton); her lover Bothwell (March) and of the plentiful court intrigues that mired her reign. There is no disguising the strong accent of the former, nor the drawl of the latter. and there is virtually no chemistry between them - particularly as the story evolves and the precarious nature of Mary's grip on power becomes evident. John Ford creates an image that uses the sets